System and method for recording environmental data in vehicles

Abstract

System and method for recording environmental accident data in vehicles. In one aspect, environmental data is received at inputs to a recorder device from a plurality of data sources in the vehicle. The environmental data is processed and indexed for recording onto a plurality of storage media. The environmental data is recorded onto the plurality of storage media such that each one of the storage media stores a same copy of at least a portion of the environmental data, wherein the environmental data is recorded before and after the accident of the vehicle.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 912,895, filed Apr. 19, 2007, entitled, “System and Apparatus for Recording Vital Accident Data in Vehicles,” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to recording environmental data, and more particularly to recording environmental data during an accident of a vehicle.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Recording vehicular data during accidents or similar disasters is performed to help the determination of the causes of the accident. For example, vehicles such as aircraft, ships and trains may include ‘black box’ systems that record environmental data, such as the instrumentation data indicating the operating condition of the vehicle. Black box recorders are customarily designed to take various data inputs from the vehicle's instrumentation. The structure and design of a black box recorder is ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]The invention provides a system and apparatus for capturing and recording environmental data onto multiple storage media before and after a vehicular accident such that multiple copies of the environmental data are recorded, ensuring that environmental data has a higher probability of surviving the accident. The environmental data can also be protected against accident conditions and unauthorized tampering. In addition, a radio locating device can be used to reliably locate the protected storage media after an accident.

Problems solved by technology

Currently this environmental data is usually restricted to specific vehicle operating data and rarely includes video and audio data.

In a non-air vehicle such as automobiles, trains, and sea craft, processing electronics will more often survive accidents.

Furthermore, the recorded data is restricted to vehicular instrumentation data only, excluding recording of video and audio data.

The EDR is not protected from severe accident conditions, fire, water and hazardous liquids.

Furthermore, the tamper proofing mechanism is limited to a physical sealing, and there is no hashing, signing, or encrypting of the data to reveal unauthorized attempts to access the data.

However, the apparatus is not concerned with providing a rugged storage medium and making the data secure against unauthorized tampering.

Images